Team Reportedly Puts 30-Goal Scorer on the Market for Free

As the first NHL buyout window of the summer continues, there's been much talk about who could be next to have their contract bought out. While many teams look to the buyout as a useful tool when they get stuck with a bad contract, most teams try to trade a player before buying them out.

Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff recently chatted about some potential buyout candidates and the current rumors surrounding each player's team. He noted that while many of these teams will probably use a buyout at some point, they have been aggressive on the trade market trying to find a willing partner. The reasoning behind this is that a team would rather gain nothing for something than lose cap space for nothing.

While most of the players on the buyout list are severely overpaid, aging players, there are usually some players with decent value, who just have unfortunate contracts.

According to Seravalli's report, the Montreal Canadiens have offered forward Mike Hoffman to teams for practically nothing, simply to get him off of their payroll, and avoid a buyout. While Hoffman has had a questionable past two seasons, he's not very far removed from some of his best performances and is still a very capable goalscorer.

Hoffman was once a perennial 30-goal scorer, with a career-high 70-point season just four years ago. The unfortunate circumstances regarding Hoffman and his girlfriend caused him to bounce around earlier in his career, but he has proven his worth as a goalscorer.

If Montreal is indeed offering Hoffman's services to teams for free, other organizations should be jumping all over the opportunity to nab him. With just one year left on his contract, there's little to no risk involved with the move, and a team could just as easily flip him at next season's deadline with half of his contract retained.

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